Depending on the size of your trench either dig the trench with shovels or rent a.
Hillside drainage trench gutters.
We researched how long and deep the trench should be.
The drainage pipe or drain tile as some call it will lay on a bed of gravel in the bottom of the trench and it is very easy to move this gravel around to properly slope the drain pipe.
Screw a drain cover over the end of the tubing as it approaches daylight to keep critters out.
That means the trench and drainpipe must slope away from the house with at least 1 inch 2 5 cm of fall for every 8 feet 2 4 m of run.
You want a gentle slope from the edges of the trench to the center.
I laid the 2x4 flat on the bottom of the trench placed the level on the 2x4 and every 5 10 feet worked my way from the alley to the house checking the level as i went.
First thing first dig a trench.
The gutter slope also called the pitch is the amount the gutter tilts down to let rainwater flow out of it.
If gutters don t slope water gathers in them.
The amount of collected water increases until it spills over the sides of the gutter.
From the inlet it would have to be about 1 ft.
Depending on the trench length and more important the type of soil digging the trench with a shovel can range from relatively easy to downright impossible.
The trench should be about 18 inches deep and 9 to 12 inches wide.
Continue until you have completed the trench.
Make sure your downspout extension and connector fit together and on your gutter.
The underground drainage pipe should slope downhill at least 1 8 in.
If gutters slope too severely they don t hold water and water could splash over the sides in heavy rain.
When i thought i was done digging the trench i used an 8 foot long 2x4 and a level to make sure there was some slope to the bottom of my trench.
French drains need to have a slope of at least 1 so the force of gravity will work for you.
If you had a discharge outlet 100 ft.
We want our drain pipe to have a 1 slope so water will always drain properly.
The trench should be at least 6 inches wide and slope down slightly 1 to 2 inches per length of pipe so water drains away from the downspouts.
We found that the trench needs to be 10 12 inches deep with about a 2 inch slope.
This means that the drain should slope down a total of at least 1 inch for every 10 feet of pipe.
We ll make sure the slope is correct by using a 4 foot 1 2 m level.
So it is not critical that the french drain trench bottom be perfectly sloped it is great if you can manage it but don t get too frustrated over it.
Where the tube passes by the downspout from the gutter we installed a y fitting and drained the roof water from the gutter system directly into the main drainage line.
Home drainage systems.
To create the drain you ll have to dig a gradually sloping trench from the source to the outlet.